State of the Nation 2024 | WEN Wales Analysis
Poverty, distrust and a downward turn for gender equality in Wales
State of the Nation 2024 Report – Key Findings:
- The gender pay gap in Wales increased by 0.4% while the UK-wide figure decreased by 0.6%.
- Women remain 3.5 times more likely to be economically inactive due to caring or domestic responsibilities.
- Among 20 to 24-year-olds, the economic activity gap reversed, with women in this category slightly more likely to be economically active than men.
- There were small improvements to occupational segregation, accompanied by a worrying rise in the proportion of women employed in the lowest-paying sectors.
- In Wales, 19% of SMEs are led by women, 1% higher than the UK-wide figure.
- Single parents, the vast majority of whom are women, continued to face the highest risk of all household types, with almost one in three experiencing relative income poverty.
- 41% of female Universal Credit claimants are in work, compared to 30% of male Universal Credit claimants.
- Women continued to make up most Universal Credit claimants (58%) and remained more likely than men to rely on Universal Credit despite working, as the gender gap for in-work claimants slightly increased.
“In 2018, the Welsh Government expressed their ambition for Wales to become a world leader on gender equality. Today, (25th September 2024) in a most disheartening move, they withdrew a bill that would have introduced gender quotas for electoral candidates lists, thus ensuring a more representative and equal legislature in Wales.
“We need words to be accompanied by concrete actions. We are proud to carry on Chwarae Teg’s vital work with this report, but until the body making the laws in Wales does not start reflecting more on the diversity of the people for whom it’s making them, the State of the Nation will not significantly change, despite best efforts by civil society.”
-Victoria Vasey, WEN Wales Director
One year on from the devastating loss of Chwarae Teg, we are pleased to be carrying on their vital work by publishing the State of the Nation report, which is now in its sixth iteration.
Year on year, the report examines the socio-economic and political factors that indicate levels of gender inequality in Wales and the rest of the UK. In 2024, we are disappointed to report that while some marginal progress has been made in closing some of these gaps, indicators of gender inequality remain across the core areas examined.
Gender Pay Gap in Wales Rises Marginally, State of the Nation Finds.
The UK-wide gender pay gap showed a positive step, decreasing from 14.9% to 14.3%. However, it increased by 0.4% for Wales from 11.4 to 11.8%. While the pay gap remains lower in Wales, this bucks the nationwide trend and points to a worrying regression.
Gender Roles and Long-term Sickness are Pushing Working Women Into Poverty.
Our research indicates that gender roles are creating significant barriers toward gender equality.
Women remain 3.5 times more likely to be economically inactive due to caring or domestic responsibilities (25.2% women vs 7% men), and almost three times more likely than men to be working part-time (37% women vs 14% men).
Over a quarter of women (25.2%) cited looking after the family or home as the reason for this economic inactivity. Additionally, for both men and women, long-term sickness was the most common reason given for economic inactivity (39.1% of men vs 29.6% of women).
With the cost of living crisis to contend with, women are feeling the squeeze acutely more than men.
This reflects how gender stereotypes and women’s greater caring responsibilities result in gender pay gaps that can be observed across most of Wales.
Women continue to occupy an unequal position in Wales’ economy, partly due to being responsible for unpaid domestic work, a lack of childcare support, and fewer positions in well-paying jobs in male-dominated fields. All of this threatens to continue to push women into poverty and acute poverty, regardless of employment status, particularly if they are a single-parent household.
At Senior Leadership and Government Level, Diversity Remains an Issue Across the Board.
We have recently celebrated some positive developments, such as the appointment of Wales’ first female First Minister, Eluned Morgan MS – a true milestone for women’s representation in Wales. Nonetheless, there have also been some disheartening reports across senior leadership.
After several reshuffles, as of August 2024, 67% of the Welsh Cabinet was made up of women, which is close to last year’s figure of 64%.
However, in terms of local government leadership, the proportion of female Chief Executives remained stable at 23%, while the number of female local government leaders halved to a puny 9%.
This same pattern was observed at Senedd level, where women’s representation remained unchanged at 43%, with only one woman from an ethnic minority background and only one woman openly identifying as LGBTQ+. The Welsh Government introduced the Senedd Cymru (Electoral Candidate Lists) Bill proposing gender quotas earlier this year, which was a very promising step in the right direction. Whereas the Bill passed the first vote in the Senedd, the Government’s recent decision to withdraw it before it moved on to the next stage of deliberation was a disheartening setback for a more equal and diverse legislature in Wales.
Intersectional diversity remained a challenge to report on, as public appointments have still not been resolved. The most recent figures that are publicly available remain those for 2021/22, which have again been reproduced in this report. Availability of data for other protected characteristics and intersectionality, including the representation of disabled women, remains an issue across the board.
True Scale of Violence Against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (VAWDASV) Likely To Be Considerably Larger Than Data Reports.
Due to underreporting and distrust in formal reporting processes, the true scale of VAWDASV is incalculable. As such, it is likely to be far worse than the available data, which is at best incomplete. For example, according to Rape Crisis England and Wales, five out of six women who are raped do not report it to the police. Because most of our data is pulled from police reports, where charge-to-conviction rates remain woefully low. Therefore, the true number cannot be ascertained.
Moreover, services across Wales remain under unprecedented pressure to cope with the number of service users. For example, 70% of Welsh Women’s Aid member services saw an increase in demand, at the same time as grappling with the impact of rising costs, regulatory changes, and an increasingly competitive, short-term funding landscape.
Smaller ‘by-and-for’ services, which provide crucial support to women from marginalised communities, are often hardest hit by this. The need for sustainable funding, alongside a committed approach to eradicate the root causes of VAWDASV at all levels of society, remains as pressing as ever.
State of the Nation Analysis Conclusion.
2023 saw another challenging year for gender equality, resulting in disappointing shifts for the State of the Nation Report, 2024.
While the grip of inflation slowly eased, and some figures improved, the ripple effects on women were palpable across the different areas covered in this report. Budgetary pressures in 2023 resulted in real-term reductions to public services and deep cuts to the childcare and equality and human rights budget, all of which disproportionately impact women.
The outcome is disheartening.
Recommendations
Going forward, we need a renewed focus and commitment to make the most of the opportunities that may present themselves.
The election of a UK Labour Government promises a more collaborative intergovernmental relationship, potentially making it easier for the Welsh Government to deliver on aligned policy objectives, such as reducing in-work poverty and pay gaps, and tackling gender-based violence, harassment, and abuse.
While the prospect of a new fiscal framework for Wales is on the horizon, the interim budgetary context will remain challenging. The UK Government’s commitment to balance the books and limit debts means we will likely not see major investments, with a corresponding rise in Barnett consequentials, for some time.
The Welsh Government’s commitment to equality has translated into tangible plans, including the Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan and the LGBTQ+ Action Plan. Work is also underway for an updated disability action framework and on outstanding and long-term actions from the Gender Equality Review. The draft Strategic Equality Plan endeavours to bring these various plans together behind three principles: mainstreaming equality, adopting an intersectional approach, and addressing the implementation gap.
While the commitment to these principles is music to the ears of equality campaigners, this is an ambitious task, and the proof will be in the pudding. With the expiration of the Advancing Gender Equality in Wales Action Plan in 2023, a revised action plan for gender equality must be developed to set out ambitious actions for the next three to five years. Based on the experience of other action plans published since, this plan should be accompanied by a robust evaluation framework to ensure measurable progress that will ultimately be reflected in the data presented in State of the Nation.
Download State of the Nation 2024 in English / Cymraeg
Download Chawarae Teg State of the Nation Reports from 2019-2023 here.